Clubhouse Ride, third in the Grade 3 Delta Downs Jackpot Stakes and CashCall Futurity in the fall, will make his next start in March and will skip the $250,000 Robert Lewis Stakes next Saturday at Santa Anita, trainer Craig Lewis said.
Lewis said he is considering the $250,000 San Felipe Stakes over 1 1/16 miles on March 12 or the $800,000 Sunland Park Derby in New Mexico on March 27.
“It gives us a little more time,” he said. “We’re not in a big hurry. We’ve got options.”
Santa Anita plans to add sand to the main track to improve the balance of sand, clay, and silt, track president George Haines said on Friday.
Haines said tests have been conducted that will determine how much sand needs be added and that consultations are ongoing with trainers.
“We’ve had people talking with the horsemen right now and going over some tests that came in,” he said. “We’re looking at probably adding some sand very shortly. I’m not sure about the amount of sand. Some could be added after racing.”
Blind Luck, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2010, will be ridden by leading jockey Rafael Bejarano in the $150,000 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 13, trainer Jerry Hollendorfer said.
Bejarano rode Blind Luck six times from December 2009 to June 2010, a span in which she won three stakes, including the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes at Santa Anita and the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks at Churchill Downs. Bejarano was replaced by Joel Rosario last summer.
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ARCADIA, Calif. – One thing was missing from the Santa Anita meet’s richest Grade 1 for older horses – a favorite.
It gets settled this weekend in two Grade 2’s – Twirling Candy was the early choice into the Strub Stakes for 4-year-olds on Saturday; Aggie Engineer and Gladding lead a field of older horses into the San Antonio Stakes on Sunday.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Trainer Wesley Ward entered his Grade 3 stakes placed 3-year-old Cozy Kitten in an allowance race on Saturday as well as Sunday’s $100,000 Hallandale Beach and pretty much left the decision of where to run up to his owner, Ken Ramsey.
“Ken said if he’s gonna be a bear, he might as well be a grizzly bear, so we’re going for it,” Ward said when confirming that Cozy Kitten would compete in the 1 1/16-mile Hallandale Beach.
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. –Boys At Tosconova may be trainer Richard Dutrow Jr.’s top Kentucky Derby prospect at this time. But he’s not the only promising 3-year-old in the barn.
Those looking for a sleeper on the Derby trail might want to consider Rocking Out – a son of Include who registered an impressive maiden victory in his only start at 2 – especially after the way the inexperienced colt handled himself here Friday morning against no less a workmate than the multiple Grade 2 winner D’ Funnybone.
ARCADIA, Calif. – J P’s Gusto, the winner of four sprint stakes and one of the leading 2-year-olds in California last year, will be transferred from trainer David Hofmans to Joe Petalino in Arkansas in coming days, the trainers said on Friday.
OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Super Espresso is more than just a hunch play on Super Bowl Sunday at Aqueduct.
After losing her first six starts, Super Espresso, a $1.1 million yearling purchase by celebrity chef Bobby Flay, has won her last two for trainer Todd Pletcher. On Sunday, Super Espresso will seek her first stakes victory when she takes on five fillies and mares in the $60,000 Sky Beauty Stakes at a mile over the inner track.
The fastest 3-year-old in California is off the Santa Anita Derby list. The Factor set a track record Dec. 26, when he ran six furlongs in 1:06.98, but the Baffert-trained colt did not have a published work for at least three weeks following a five-furlong breeze Jan. 9. A recent comment by Baffert regarding The Factor and the Kentucky Derby suggested the colt may point in a different direction.
A pair of statebred allowances that serve as co-features seem to give off the impression that Fair Grounds racing officials took a thinly veiled “You can’t fight the Super Bowl” approach when carding nine races for Sunday.
True, Sunday will be nothing like last year in New Orleans, where citizens went absolutely wild in anticipating and celebrating a Super Bowl victory by their beloved Saints. Yet the National Football League behemoth clearly overshadows all else, and the result at Fair Grounds is a rather ordinary Sunday card that appears to concede as much.
